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Song: Wake Up John (Hanging Song)
Album: Babbacombe Lee (1971)
Artist: Fairport Convention (Written By Dave Swarbick and Dave Pegg)
A CAPELLA (A)
Wake up John, it's time to go Come along John and don't be slow
Come along John, don't be slow Wake up John, it's time to go
Wake up John, it's time to go
INTRO
Dm A x 7
G D F
VERSE 1
A F G A
A priest joins the procession just to help me kneel
Bm C#m D Dm
With a warder at my elbow and another at my heel
A F G A
Marching in the morning down a path I've lately seen
Bm C#m D Dm
I was sleeping in this garden, am I still within my dream?
A F G A
The echo of my heartbeat is the beating of a drum
Bm C#m D Dm
And all the earth is singing with life's sweet hum
A F G A
We filed in solemn silence, shuffled through a door
Bm C#m G A
The place where life is taken for the letter of the law
CHORUS
A D E
Shake the holy water, summon up the guard
B A G F#m
Dying's very easy, waiting's very hard
VERSE 2
F#m Bm
A rope was hanging from the roof, a sight which puzzles me
F#m B
I thought a gibbet and a guard would make a gallows tree
E G
But now all is revealed, stamped there is the command
A B
My feet are on the trapdoor with a rope around my hand
A F G A
And now the executioner is shaking hands with me
Bm C#m D Dm
"My duty I must carry out, you poor fellow," says he
A F G A
A rope is tied around my feet and a bag upon my head
Bm C#m D Dm
And then the noose which separates the living from the dead
CHORUS
VERSE 3
F#m Bm
There he whispers to me "Have you anything to say?"
F#m Bm
My mouth is dry, my throat is tight, I answer "Drop away"
E G
Silence now surrounds me, my heart is beating on
A B
The trapdoor hardly moves at all, my life is still my own
VIOLIN SOLO
A F G A x8
A F G A
They stand me in a corner with my hands and feet still bound
Bm C#m D Dm
While a carpenter is called for and an explanation found
A F G A
"The rain has warped the timbers," I hear the hangman say
Bm C#m D Dm
"It's funny but it worked well, I tried it yesterday"
F#m Bm
"All is mended now," they say, "your ordeal's nearly over
F#m B
Your life's as good as ended," but I hear their voices waver
E G
Once more the bolt is shaken and again I hang in limbo
A B
While the guards jump on the trapdoor and my body stands on tip-toe
CHORUS
VERSE 4
A F G A
They stand me in a corner with my hands and feet still tied
Bm C#m D Dm
A warder holds onto the noose, the trapdoor opens wide
A F G A
Is it magic or coincidence that keeps me on the brink?
Bm C#m D Dm
It seems to work without me, "Will it kill me now?" I think
F#m Bm
"Please, I'm tired of living and I really want to die"
F#m B
I was taken to the scaffold and I heard the hangman cry
E G
"Lee, I'm truly sorry, forgive these hands of mine"
A B
He three\w the bolt and I felt the jolt the third and final time
F#m Bm
My life was spared that morning 'cos it wasn't theirs to take
F#m B
Three's the most the law requires, a man to feel the stake
CHORUS x2
